Career & Tools

Join us for Lunch & Learn, where you'll have the chance to socialize with other grad students and hear talks by students in Linguistics and Computer Science. While we won't be able to share pizza in person, all attendees will be entered into a raffle to win a $15 Target gift card.

Thursday, January 28th, 2021 - 3:45pm


Join us for Lunch & Learn, where you'll have the chance to socialize with other grad students and hear talks by students in Linguistics and Computer Science. Lunch & Learn is co-sponsored by the Graduate Division, the Graduate Student Association, and the UCSB Library.

While we won't be able to share pizza together in person, all attendees will be entered into a raffle to win one of ten $15 Target gift cards.

February 2021 Edition: Mobility & Morality

February 12, 12-1:15pm
Zoom*
*RSVP here to receive the Zoom link*

Tribal Mobility and COVID-19: An Urban-Rural Analysis in New Mexico

Graduate Student in Computer Science

Native American communities have experienced disproportionately high infection and death rates during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. My work seeks to understand one of many possible reasons for these high rates by characterizing human mobility through anonymous personal device location data in states with significant tribal presence. I present results in New Mexico, where two counties which are part of Navajo Nation have among the highest case rates in the United States. Results examine regional divides across urban/rural and tribal/non-tribal boundaries before and after the stay-at-home order on March 24, revealing unique patterns which public health officials and tribal leadership could use to adapt future prevention efforts.

Virtue Signaling and the Commodification of Social Justice Discourse

deandre miles-hercules
Graduate Student in Linguistics

In this talk I discuss virtue signaling, the action or practice of highlighting one's morality through the use of language and other signs that index alignment with political or social community values, and the ways it allows individuals and institutions to evade responsibility for the perpetuation of systems of inequity. Specifically, I argue that it is a form of neoliberal identity politics that commodifies social justice discourse as moral value. After providing examples of this in both micro and macro scope, I conclude by presenting recommendations for institutions and organizations to align their actions with their purported values. (This work was done in collaboration with Jamaal Muwwakkil).

This event will be moderated by Josh Kuntzman, Assessment Coordinator, Office of Budget and Planning.

Interested in being a presenter at an upcoming Lunch & Learn? Click here to find out more! If you have any questions about this event or Lunch & Learn in general, please email Chava Nerenberg.